Berlin: Muscle at Checkpoint Charlie

It was the most determined show of U.S.
strength since the Berlin crisis began, but staged belatedly, over a
narrow issue. If one U.S. bulldozer had been at work on Aug. 13 to stop
East Germany when it put up the Wall, then last week's Jeep convoys,
backed by growling tanks, would probably not have had to shuttle in and
out of East Berlin to demonstrate Western rights.

The test was theoretically over the clear right of Allied access to the
Russian sector, based on the four-power agreement of the conquering
nations. In...